Commentary: Selfishness of Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac could crush team's chemistry, sabotage season

First, Francisco Lindor, ever the respectful, all-purpose, face-of-the-franchise leader, sayer of all things proper, and properly, opened with velvet gloves: "We have to sit back and look at ourselves in the mirror. And it's not about the person we see in the mirror. It's who's behind you. The other people," he said about his two wayward teammates. "It's not about that one person. It's about everybody around you: the family members, the coaching staff, (Carlos) Carrasco, all the players on teams that are high-risk. We're in a time now, with COVID, with racism, with everything, this is a time to be selfless. This is when we have to sit back and understand this is not about one person specifically. It's about everybody. It's about your neighbors and your neighbor's neighbors. It's not just about you specifically." Then Adam Plutko took off the gloves, and came out swinging: "They hurt us bad. They lied to us. They sat here and publicly said things they didn't follow through on. It's going to be up to them. The term I continue to hear — excuse my language — is grown-ass men. Those grown-ass men can sit here and tell you guys what happened and what they're going to do to fix it." In a compacted 60-game regular season, the Indians are operating without 40 percent of their starting rotation, compliments of Zach Plesac and Mike Clevinger, who put themselves on the restricted list by putting themselves above their teammates when they willingly violated the team's code of conduct with their night on the town in Chicago on Saturday. Their decision to do so was equal parts reckless and selfish. The reaction of their left-in-the-lurch teammates probably ranges from the bookend ones offered by Lindor's graceful scolding to Plutko's more visceral outrage. Both are appropriate and understandable. Plesac and Clevinger did a lot of things wrong Saturday night, beyond embarrassing themselves and their employer. In a team sport built on fraternal dependency, they created an unnecessary fracture that will be difficult to mend. A trust was violated. Knowingly. Willingly. During the course of a 162-game schedule (in a normal year), it can get pretty hectic in the foxhole. What can hold it together is implied by the title of those therein: team. Teams are built on trust. What the Indians are battling now is that trust has been violated. Twice. This is a lot to put on the plate of any manager, much less one who is less than 100 percent. But there was gamer Terry Francona, back in the dugout Tuesday night after missing eight games due to still more health issues. Francona walked into a raging maelstrom triggered by the irresponsibility of two of his most important pitchers. With the team in a self-created discombobulation, the outcome of the game was hardly a surprise: a 7-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. Clevinger was the originally scheduled starting pitcher for the game, until he and Plesac booked their reservation on the restricted list by hitting the streets of Chicago. Plutko, pressed into service as the emergency starter for Clevinger, didn't need much help in connecting the cause-and-effect dots in that 7-1 loss. "It was another distraction for us tonight," he said. "I'm not going to say that's the difference-maker, but it contributes. Of all the other teams (in the majors) no one had to deal with what we had to deal with tonight." The dealers were Plesac and Clevinger, and it seems fair to assume that Plutko isn't the only Indians player who feels the team got backdoored by the two selfish pitchers. That, in the end, will be the team's biggest challenge going forward. At some point Plesac and Clevinger will presumably go back onto the roster, back into the rotation and back onto the pitcher's mound, where they will be seeking the defensive and offensive help from the very teammates whose trust they have so crassly violated. Those are some grown-ass bridges that Plesac and Clevinger need to build. How receptive their teammates will be toward the pitchers' attempt to do so will undoubtedly be a factor in how the team plays the remainder of the season. This was no small misstep, because it cuts to the very fabric of sport itself: trust and teamwork. Two players pulling on the opposite end of the rope from their teammates is not going to work. That's where this wounded team is now. We're about to find out if the character of this Indians team can bail out the temporary lack of it shown by two of their teammates. If there is a silver lining, it's the leadership of Francona, who is probably still managing with his fuel light on. But it won't be his fault if the season goes downhill from here. If it does, we'll know the reason. Both of them. Contact Jim Ingraham at 329-7135 or jingraham4@gmail.com. Follow him @Jim_Ingraham on Twitter.